Camilla Casey Polakoff 

University of Washington’s Foster School of Business

“High-energy, action-oriented, and honest team player with a passion for sports, laughter, and amateur dancing.”

Hometown: Berkeley, CA

Fun Fact About Yourself: During my freshman year at Brown University, the Brown Women’s Crew Team won the 2011 NCAA Division 1 National Championship in Rowing and I competed in this event.

Undergraduate School and Major: Brown University, Political Science

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: 

• Current, powered by GE (previously General Electric)
• Partner Program Manager

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: My biggest accomplishment in my career thus far has been creating and launching Current, powered by GE’s first software partnership program. In 2015, Current, a newly-formed startup within General Electric, was created with the mission to build intelligent buildings and cities through censored indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures. These light fixtures had sensors to collect multiple data sets to help optimize building performance, employee productivity, city and citizen safety, and city livability. Current would then provide software companies with this data to enhance existing software applications specific to customer and city needs.

At this time, larger GE was also transitioning in software-focused solutions and many business units were creating software partnerships and programs. Current was one of the first business units to launch a software partnership program and I was tasked with creating and operationalizing this program. I created a global partnership program that consisted of creating market segmentation of potential partners; developed a tiered program structure guiding partners on critical milestones to go to market together; managed customer engagements with partners, comarketed events; and built out internal commercial operational tools to support the program and sales activities. Through this role, I learned how to launch new products, gained domain expertise in software technology, and developed the confidence and ability to create solutions for unknown tasks and problems for myself and business.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Helpful. During the MBA application process, many Foster MBAs were helpful throughout the experience. Students met with me multiple times to talk about their experience at Foster and advised on the application process. Similarly, the other Foster 2021 first years that I have met so far have been helpful during the transition period–offering to help me move and understand UW’s online tools. This helpful quality speaks to the larger Foster community being very collaborative and understanding.

What makes Seattle such a great place to earn an MBA? Seattle has a very unique mixture of industries including tech, consulting, banking, sports, and healthcare all within a small geographic region. Having such direct access to multiple industries makes it easy to explore various career paths while earning an MBA. Additionally, Seattle’s reputation for being a “healthy” city enables students to prioritize their own happiness and health during the career and MBA adventure.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Supportive Culture. I spoke to this briefly above, but throughout the whole application period, Foster was always open to and willing to discuss any of my questions or concerns. I am very much a team-oriented person and working in teams is important to me. As a result, choosing an MBA program where people are supportive of one another and want to work together is extremely important to me. Never once along the process did I feel and experience a Foster person – whether a career coach, admission interviewer, or student – who not want to support me, a potential future teammate of his or hers.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? There are two that are tied: Outdoor & Sports Industry Club and Challenge 4 Charity.

I have a deep passion for health, sports, and fitness and am excited about participating in OSIC to understand how my career could and might pivot into that industry.

I enjoy giving back to the community I live in, and through Challenge 4 Charity I can not only give back to my community through volunteering but also continue my passion for sports by competing at the C4C weekend in the Spring and helping out my Foster teammates.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? “What brand/company do you admire that we do not know of?” This question made me have to think on the spot (which I thought was a good challenge) and also choose a company that speaks to who I am as an individual and my values.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? After launching and scaling Current’s partner program, I felt like I had outgrown my role. In order to move onto another partnerships position, there were limitations I foresaw and thought an MBA would help address these limitations. Specifically, there were multiple financial components of other partnership specific roles where I did not have the expertise. I wanted to pursue an MBA to gain the appropriate financial knowledge for business and also potentially pivot into the health and sports industry.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? Yale, Duke, UCLA, University of Oregon

How did you determine your fit at various schools? The main factors that determined my fit at various schools were the following: collaborative culture, geographic location, rigorous but supportive academic setting, small program size, job placement rate, and company recruiting at school. I did a lot of online research, whether through the school’s website, blog posts, or published articles, to understand and narrow down the schools. I also attended a couple of MBA fairs near my home to learn more about the programs and application process. This was helpful to understand individual school priorities and preferences.

While researching schools, I knew I had a potential interest in pivoting into the health, fitness and sports industries so I wanted to focus on schools that either had previous connections to these types of companies or were geographically located in areas specific to these industries.

Regarding culture, I spoke with several students at each program and made it a point to plan an on-campus visit for each school where I was applying. This on-campus visit gave me direct access to students, professors, and career management personnel. It was through my engagement with multiple students that I better understood which programs had cultures that fit better with my personality and goals.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? Building the foundation for a primary school in Malawi, Africa in 2016.

While working at GE, I had the opportunity to fundraise with the non-profit organization BuildOn and other GE colleagues to fundraise for and build a school in Malawi, Africa. As part of this experience, we went to Africa for a week to help build the foundation of the school. It was during this experience that my values in life were either shaped or reinforced.

We built this school in rural Malawi, an area with limited technology, sparse running water, and no electricity. Parts of the experience were difficult; for example, we had to communicate with the locals and working five or more hours in the intense heat with limited tools. Still, this experience shaped me in multiple ways. It reinforced how important teamwork is—without having advanced tools, we relied on each other to carry bricks, sand, mud, and water in order to build the school. If we didn’t have teamwork, we would not achieve the task of building the school because there were not enough people to complete the tasks in a timely manner.

This experience also shaped me in solidifying what is important to me in life. In this village, numerous children were happy with playing with a soccer ball made out of rolled-up trash. This experience taught me how to improvise and come up with a solution when you don’t have the perfect situation or answer in front of you. Also, this experience showed me that happiness comes through doing something that matters to you or is important to you. Playing soccer brought such joy to children who otherwise had little (minimal school, limited food, etc.). It was the children’s desire to keep playing soccer in any means that showed me how I need to pursue what makes me happy even if it might not be the conventical path. Lastly, the difficult physical labor reminded me that pain or struggle is temporary and that there is always something on the other side, such as a primary school for children who didn’t have one within several miles of the town. I try to keep this in mind as I encounter career or personal difficulties, knowing that if I stay true to my own mission and goals, there will be something past the hardship.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? Professionally, as of now, I see myself as head of a partnership division with a company that focuses on health, fitness, and sports. I am open, however, to any path that gets me there and also understand that this goal might change as I continue to develop professionally.

Personally, I see myself finally settling on a city, town or state and not moving like I have done every year for the past five years. I see myself contributing to my local community, continuing to participate in sports, and starting a family in some capacity. More immediately, I see myself getting a dog as soon as possible and naming him Buckets. It will hopefully be a pit-mix with floppy ears and a long tail.